o the
emergency, and cartloads of candles were quickly obtained. The staff of
carpenters employed on the building improvised receptacles, and the
postal work was proceeded with, candles as they burnt out being replaced
by men told off for the purpose. Some time afterwards, it was suggested
that the stock of candles left over should be disposed of, but it was
then found that these had been devoured by the innumerable rats which
infest the old building.

CHAPTER XVII.

QUAINT ADDRESSES AND THE DEAN'S PECULIAR SIGNATURE.--AMUSING INCIDENTS
AND THE POSTMAN'S KNOCK.--HUMOROUS APPLICATIONS.

The members of the Bristol Post Office Staff have to display no little
perspicacity in elucidating quaint addresses on letters going through
the post. To Postman Wade must go the credit of having correctly
surmised that the letter addressed simply "25th March, Clifton," to
which allusion has already been made, was intended for Lady Day, the
wife of the Judge of Assize, Mr. Justice Day, then staying in Clifton. A
letter addressed to "W.D. & H.O.", without street or town being named,
came from a distant county, and was delivered to the firm of Messrs.
W.D. & H.O. Wills & Co., in Bristol, for whom it was found to be
intended.

The pictorial illustrations herewith demonstrate two instances of
letters correctly delivered by the post office officials after the
address had been deciphered by their _Sherlock Holmes_.

In the _Bristol Royal Mail_ particulars were given of the peculiar way
in which correspondents addressed their envelopes to the Post Office,
Bristol. Since that publication was issued, other peculiar instances
have occurred. The following are cases of the kind, viz.:--The Head
Postmaster (Master's Parlour). The Honourable The Postmaster. Postmaster
Number 58 (in answer to query on Form "Postmasters No. 58"). Master,
General Post Office, Bristol.

The Dean of Bristol in the preface of his very interesting book "Odds
and Ends," writes of the many liberties people take with his surname in
their communications, and says that none of their imaginary names are so
pleasing to him as his own proper name of Pigou. That his correspondents
are not altogether to be blamed may be gathered from the fact that the
Dean, in an official letter to the Bristol Post Office, signed his name
thus:

[Illustration: Signature]

The signature was submitted to 22 officers who decipher the badly
addressed letters at the "Blind" Division, at "